Question a Day wrote:
How is your lair cleaned? Are there cleaner dragons or do dragons take turns cleaning every room and chamber? Is it the job of Water dragons or is there no involvement of magic in cleaning? How often are cleaning duties done in your lair?
So each clan member has their own tent, though the tents are often shared between mates and close friends. The members of each tent are responsible for keeping their tent clean. For the dragons that live within Somnus Cave, keeping their cavern clean is also their responsibility. Shared areas, such as the eating tent or medical tent, are kept clean by the dragons that work their and volunteers. It is highly frowned upon to not help clean the shared areas, and dragons that shirk their responsibility are often met with unfriendliness by their clanmates. There has only been a couple dragons that refused to help clean, and all of them have eventually pitched in after a couple days of the cold shoulder.
When it's time for the harvest, every clan member helps in the fields and also helps clean up the processing tent afterwards.
Question a Day wrote:
15. August 2016. There are breeds that have "disadvantages". Does your clan take everyone as equals, or are certain breeds looked down on? (I am thinking of communication difficulties among Coatls, Faes and the rest of the breeds, the flightless wings of Snappers, etc). If breeds are not taken as equals, are the "less capable" frawned upon, or are they taken special care of to be able to live full lives?
Well, in my clan we see them not as disadvantages, but more as specializations. For example, we have two snappers that live within the clan. One is a builder, so flying is unnecessary, and the other grows mushrooms in Somnus Cave. Neither of them need to fly, so it isn't a disadvantage at all! I also ignore the fact that coatls can't speak like other dragons, so that rarely comes up. The only real disadvantage that my clan frowns upon is being too big! Bigger dragons take up more space and eat more food, so because of this, we only have a couple of larger dragons within the clan. One of those dragons is our courier, so he is out delivering most of the time. But, again, large dragons have advantages too! Like they can till the fields and carry the harvests. Each dragon has a place within the clan, and every dragon find their niche!
Lore Rising wrote:
Where is your clan located? Is there something special there that drew your clan to it? Is it the place your progens first started out in?
Our clan is located in the northern tip of the Embreglow Hearth. The clan’s territory spreads out across the shoreline, not on the beach, but on the cliff overlooking the beach. The dry, cooler climate is perfect for farming, though fresh water is not plentiful. The area was chosen since it has the largest concentration of plant life in the Wastes, and the foliage of the Ashfall Wastes is my progen’s charge.
Lore Rising wrote:
Tell us about the kindest dragon in your lair.
Most people would say that Mellona is the kindest dragon in the lair, and it’s true, she is incredibly kind. She always assumes the best in people and she genuinely loves all her clanmates and friends. Another kind dragon would probably be Sanibel, and most dragons agree that Sanibel doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He is pure sugar and fluff! Bombus is another sweetheart, and true to the honey coating his fur, he is sugary sweet through and through! Aomikan is also a very kind dragon, always willing to make friends and a permanent optimist.
Most of the dragons in my lair are kind, it’s the mean ones that stand out.
Lore Rising wrote:
Are there any Shade-touched dragons in your lair? If so, tell us about them.
Well, Cascia literally is pure Shade in the shape of a dragon, but he just lives in Somnus Cave and tells prophecies on the full moon, so Mellona is content to let him stay. Cianciulli, on the other hand, is severely shade corrupted and routinely kills and eats dragons as offerings to the shade. The problem is, most of the clan doesn’t know that she lives in Somnus Cave, since no one really goes down to the final cavern where Cascia lives. The seers know about her, but since she isn’t causing trouble, and she does help them with their prophesying, they’re content to let her remain. Under the condition that she stops killing and eating other dragons, of course.
Lore Rising wrote:
Do any of your dragons worship minor, non-canon deities? If so, tell us about both the dragon and their deities. Additionally, if you have a dragon character who is a deity themselves, tell us about them.
The clan has a resident saint, named Hanayo, who helps them with the harvest, and her presence cannot be disputed. Though the clan doesn’t really worship her, per se, she does have a small shrine located next to the Mother of Flames Chapel. Lavaridge is not pleased with this.
Lore Rising wrote:
Do you have Nature and/or Plague dragons in your lair? If so, tell us about how they interact with each other and if they have any prejudice against the other. If not, tell us what your other dragons think on the subject.
The Clan of Milk and Honey is home to a large number of Plague ex-pats, one of which is the head of the agricultural department. In comparison, we have very few Nature dragons. In fact, there are only three Nature dragons that live in the clan at all. One of which is a poison-maker, and is more Plague-like than Nature-like, and the other two are royalty that fled from Gladeveins due to political upheaval. Since the attack on the clan from the Garigill Nature Cult, Nature dragons are met with suspicion. Plague dragons, on the other hand, are generally well accepted.
Lore Rising wrote:
How does your clan respond to famine?
Considering my clan supplies most of the mood consumed by the industrial clans within the Ashfall Wastes, that would be devastating not only to my clan, but to every other clan within the Fire Flight, and possibly beyond, since we also trade with Wind and Lightning clans. We would probably be able to survive if we ceased exporting our food and instead consumed it, since we also have some preserved food within Somnus Cave. Also, we don’t just grow crops, but raise meat animals, fish, and keep bees, so even if the crops were to fail, we would have other sources of food to fall back on.
Lore Rising wrote:
Your clan has been blessed with an overabundance of food. How do they respond?
Well, my clan exports most of our food, so we’d probably end up making a lot of cash and save the extra treasure we earned. Whatever we don’t sell we’d probably preserve via canning or drying and store in Somnus Cave, where it’s not quite as hot.\
Lore Rising wrote:
How important is wealth and money in your clan?
The clan functions in more or less, a barter economy. They trade their crops for materials and other items, and then use those items to create the things they need. Sometimes they will then trade the finished items for treasure, but that isn’t very often. Their wealth is more or less determined by how well their harvests are, and in a bad year, the clan has to reduce trading in order to survive on the food they produce, since their food production is for personal consumption as well as trading. Basically, wealth is determined by the harvest, and the harvest is basically the most important thing to the clan. Money is more or less irrelevant.
Lore Rising wrote:
How is education viewed within your clan? What are the typical ways to teach students? Is education open to all, or only reserved for a specific group of people?
The majority of clan members joined as adults, and had already gotten an education in their home clans (or were never educated). Since the clan is primarily agricultural, being a scholar isn’t though of as a special honor, its more important to help the clan through researching new farming methods, breeding practices, etc. Katsura is the tutor responsible for teaching hatchlings about reading, writing, history, basic math, and science, while Lavaridge teaches about religion. Since the clan is so small, generally the hatchlings are left with Amphitrite, who cares for them as Katsura teaches the small groups. While some hatchlings never take to schooling, most know the basics of reading and writing, as well as the eleven deities. Despite that, many clan members have scientific minds that help keep the clan at the forefront of agricultural advancement.
lamentations-fr wrote:
- What is your clan’s main export (either goods or services)?
- What do your neighbouring clans think of you?
- Does your clan have an organised military?
- How technologically advanced is your lair?
- How welcoming is your clan to outsiders?
- Do dragons in your clan who were originally from other flights get treated differently?
- How superstitious is your clan?
- Does your clan have any unique traditions?
- How well defended is your lair?
- How does your clan celebrate their flight festival?
Our clan exports mainly agircultural products, such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, wool, and whatever else a clan might need. While we have some craftsmen, what they make is mostly made just for the clan’s use. Most of our neighboring clans are friendly with us, since we provide food and generally mind our own business. We have no military, just a couple of volunteers who patrol the borders occasionally and in the case of any sort of attack, would help defend the clan. We’re pretty much defenseless, though. My clan has a kiln and a blacksmiths forge, we use tools to farm, but we are not mechanized. The biggest and most advanced project that is in the words is cordoning off some of the shore line and creating semi-submerged, semi-raised pens to raise fish in. The clan is pretty isolationist, they prefer to mind their own business, but if someone were to wander in, they would find that everyone is rather friendly and welcoming. Since our clan’s goals are pretty unusual for a Fire clan, most dragons are originally from other flights. Dragons that have expertise in farming, biology, and animal husbandry are most desired, and many of the dragons that know those things come from other flights. Since our clan is so small and fairly isolated, most still follow old traditions and superstitions that they brought with them from their former flights. As for our own traditions, we don’t have any unique ones, but our way of designating the seasons and marking time is fairly unique. The Wastes have a pretty unique climate, and planting times in other areas do not correspond to planting times for us, so we’ve created our own way of designating when to plant and when to harvest. As said before, our clan is pretty defenseless, but we are diplomatically shrewd, so many clans end up trading with us for supplies, which means we have few enemies. During Flameforger’s, Lavaridge and Caldera generally head up planning a big festival. Foreigners are welcome to stay for a while and celebrate with us. There are special foods served throughout the week and Lavaridge and Caldera often perform traditional dances at night. It’s a fun time where everyone takes it easy and celebrates, whether they worship the Flamecaller or not!
Question a Day wrote:
When there is a feast, do your dragons buy food or do they gather more ingredients? Are there special cooks for preparation of feasts, or does the whole clan help? Is there a feast every once in a while or does your clan only prepare one for special occasions (birthdays, visitors, ... )?
Well, my clan is an agrarian clan, so everything we eat we grow ourselves! Feasts are rather uncommon as our clan is very humble, wasting food for no reason would be highly frowned upon. Even our special occasion meals are simple and filling, spending huge amounts of time on making food look nice serves no purpose, so why bother, it'll be eaten anyways! The only time special meals are prepared are for the festivals, and even then, the only festival that has a huge party is Flameforger's. Zdravka cooks all the meals, though she has volunteers and helpers that rotate throughout the seasons. Many hatchlings spend their days helping in the kitchen while their parents work the fields.
Lore Rising wrote:
Are there any inside jokes/memes in your clan? Does anyone document these or try and figure out how they came to be? Are they ever explained to confused outsiders?
A recurring joke is when guardians, imperials, and ridgebacks try to fit in the clan center, since most of the tents are too small. The biggest tents are the main tent, the food tent, the processing tents, and the couple of tents made for the larger breeds of dragons. Whenever Isidore comes back from a trip, he always tries to weave through the smaller tents and inevitably knocks some over, resulting in Feronia yelling at him. It’s become so predictable, that whenever Isidore arrives in the clan, his clan mates greet him not by saying hello, but by saying “Watch your step!” And “Damn it, Isidore!”
Another joke is “RELEASE THE BEES!” since when the flowers begin to bloom, everyone moves the beehives into the fields and releases the swarms of bees in order to pollinate everything. This also results in the bees flying all over the camp and getting trapped in the tents. This is commonly referred to as “Bee season” and visitors that come to the clan during this end up with a lot of strings, but the clan members are so used to it, they barely even notice the bees anymore.
Lore Rising wrote:
If the deities came to visit your lair as old crones, what would be the reaction from your clan before & after they found out?
Mellona and everyone would definitely welcome any travellers as well as offer them drinks or food. If it were found out that said traveller was actually a deity in disguise, the clan would definitely hold some sort of feast (modest feast, by most standards, but for the clan of milk and honey, any sort of feast is a big deal!) and show for the deity. If it happened to be the flamecaller, Caldera, Lavaridge, and Bellus would definitely throw the biggest celebration they could!
Lore Rising wrote:
The vault has been emptied! What items were once held in there? What is the first thing the clan seeks to replace, if anything? Does the lair collectively place their valuables within, or do clan members typically keep trinkets to themselves for safekeeping?
The clan doesn’t really have a vault. We have a storage area in Somnus Cave, but this only stores food. All other personal belongings are kept with their respective owners.
Economically our clan functions much like a kibbutz. Whatever money we make by selling our food, is distributed to the members and used to purchase new supplies, seeds, and whatever else we need. The money that is divided among the clan now belongs to each individual member, and they can use it to buy whatever they want. While most other dragons would assume that this system would be easy to abuse, since dragons who don’t work would get just as much as the dragons that do, but the clan was founded to make the wastes bloom with life, and every dragon that chooses to live in the clan fully believes in this goal, and they all work hard to make this dream come true. The dragons that don’t are often ostracized or kicked out of the clan. Even if you have another job within the clan, such as a defender or seer, if you are able to work in the fields, you are expected to do so whenever you have time. Many of the hatchlings born within the clan wish to live another way, and so they leave the clan.
Lore Rising wrote:
How do lair expansions work? Does your lair physically grow? Do you stay at one point and move outward, or does the location move as your clan changes areas (from the Abiding Boneyard to the Rotrock Rim, for example)? If so, do the clan residents enjoy moving from place to place?
The clan doesn’t move! We started in the emberglow hearth and that’s where we are staying! The other regions might be richer in minerals, but we are far more interested in the favorable climate for agriculture of the northern ashfall wastes. As for lair expansions, we just build more tents along the coast to make room for dragons as they come.
Lore Rising wrote:
Relations between clans can be useful. Does your lair have a dragon designated specifically for maintaining alliances between foreign territories, or is this simply tasked to whoever feels like suggesting it? Is there any group (a flight, for example) that your clan refuses to ally itself with?
Apis is the dragon in charge of all foreign affairs, but Katsura is the official clan diplomat. She is of noble birth, which makes her highly respected in negotiations. In contrast, Apis is disfigured, and mostly handles the behind-the-scenes work. Our clan is an agricultural producer, so most of our relationships are purely trade deals.
The only flight we are hesitant about is the Nature Flight, since we were recently attacked by a nature cult. Still, we are allies with many nature clans, we are just more cautious.
Lore Rising wrote:
5. September 2016. Pick 3 random dragons (or more if you like this challenge) and write 3 statements of each, that noone knows of them in the clan (hidden talents, embarrassing hobbies, etc). Have fun and let your imagination surprise you (maybe even you didn't know this much of your dragons before).
Nappe was gifted with the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form, but after being knocked overboard, she reverted to her dragon form and has been unable to change back since ;_;
While Taja is a power-hungry botanist with a taste for poisonous plants, most dragons are unaware that she also has a talent for growing orchids!
Before Aow lost his memory, he was a talented researcher, but most people know about this. What they don't know is that he was also a huge flirt, suave and charming!
